GREEN BAY - Green Bay School District students will not be forced to attend different schools under a work group's recommendations to ease overcrowding in city schools.

A 22-member citizen group was tasked late last year with developing recommendations to address overcrowding in some schools and excess space in others.

The group presented its recommendations to the school board last month after reviewing enrollment, school capacity, student mobility, open enrollment projections and the district's capacity for growth in an effort to determine whether the district should consider changing attendance areas to address the problem.

The three main issues identified in the report were overcrowding at Preble High School, filling excess space at schools on the west side of the district, and planning for future residential growth on the east side of the city.

Task force co-chair Dan Kiernan said the panel rejected redrawing attendance areas because student mobility due to open enrollment and other factors could quickly reduce the impact of changing school boundaries.

In the end, the task force decided the best route is to make changes that give people greater choice on where to send their children and increase the desirability of schools with excess capacity rather than telling them what schools to attend, Kiernan said.

"We can propose something but students can choose to go elsewhere (via open enrollment or school choice)," Kiernan said. "That is why (the group proposed) the other solutions. That is why the task force chose to ride the wave of choice in Green Bay. In an attempt to harness choice in a win-win way."

Too many students at Preble

According to the report, the district would like schools to be at about 85 percent capacity for students. Preble, which has an optimum capacity of 1,903 students, has an enrollment of 2,163. Preble's maximum capacity is 2,239 students.

By comparison East High School has an enrollment of 1,275 but can hold up to 1,670 students; Southwest High School has 1,190 but can have up to 1,826 students; and West High School has 859 but can hold up to 1,516.

The task force recommended promoting specialized programs at each of the highschools to draw more students to the other schools.

The group also suggested the board look into creating a pilot program for transporting students to their high school of choice. Providing transportation will open the program up to students who might otherwise only attend a neighborhood school.

The suggestion was also made to create a ninth-grade school for students at Preble and those around the district who wanted to attend. This would take about 575 students from Preble and help keep the school under capacity. There was no recommendation about where the program would be housed; that decision would be up to the school board.

The task force warned the board to consider these other options before changing any attendance boundaries. If the board decides to go with boundary changes it should consider allowing students currently at a school to remain at that school until they graduate.

Space on the west side

The task force found elementary schools on the west side had 846 available spots, while east side ones had 934 open spots. The problem on the east side is a shortage of space at some schools for popular specialty programs.

The task force proposed expanding such programs to other schools with available space to draw students from both within and outside the district through school choice and open enrollment.

School board member Ed Dorff sees merit in the idea of expanding programs like Chappell Elementary's International Baccalaureate World School, the Leonardo da Vinci School for Gifted Learners or King Elementary Children's Center for Engineering science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics program.

"That is something that has the real potential” to encourage people interested in attending under-capacity schools, he said.

The group also recommended the district budget funds for advertising to promote its programs and schools.

Expanding the availability of transportation within the district to make sure all students are able to attend schools they are interested in would be an important part of the change, Dorff said.

"If we give people options and choices, those decisions should not be limited by economics," he said.

Growth on the east side

Residential development is expected to continue on the district's east side, but the task force is urging the district to monitor growth and not try to get ahead of it by building new schools on the edge of the district.

A $68.25 million construction referendum approved in 2017 provided funds to build a new, larger Baird Elementary School and to expand other east-side school buildings.

If future development necessitates a new school, the task force recommends the district build a single prekindergarten through eighth-grade school.

Future action

There is no timeline for acting on the group's suggestions.

"We're kind of letting it sit for a little while so we have time to think about it,” Warren said.